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Ben Whitham

@drbenwhitham.bsky.social
5K followers 388 following 594 posts

Policy and Engagement Manager, Refugee Action | Author, 'Global Politics' (Bloomsbury 2023) | Assistant Instructor, Tiger Crane Kung Fu London. Trade unionist, martial artist, antifascist. Own views. He / him.

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Reposted by Ben Whitham
Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
“If you’re evil you’re not bad, so you’re actually kind of good.” Do not leave very rich men alone with the little spirits in their pocket that constantly tell them they’re so right.
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Left Foot Forward @left-foot-forward.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Restore's campaign isn't going well...
leftfootforward.org
Restore Britain campaigners chased out of Camden by locals
Supporters of the far-right Restore Britain were chased out of Camden by anti-racism activists as they tried to campaign for the upcoming Holborn and St Pancraas by-election. Around 15 supporters o...
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Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
"We're here today to say... war criminals are not welcome in this city &.. this is bigger than just Netanyahu. This is about the fact that our govt has been funding and enabling genocide & apartheid & it has to stop" Beth Miller from Jewish Voice for Peace in New York yesterday.
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Ooh the BBC has a new tool to show you which circle of hell you're in! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Screenshot from BBC News page: ☀️ Temperature. In your area, the average daily high during June, July and August was 26.7C, according to provisional Met Office data. This is 4C above the long-term summer average between 1991 and 2020. Your area had about 34 days above 28C, the local temperature threshold for a heatwave.William Blake illustration depicting Dante and Virgil at the gates of hell.
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Nate O @nateo.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Okay, it’s time to come clean: we are currently on strike. Every day is another day on the picket. If you want to know what I’ve been up to this past week, here’s all the info. Support our strike fund! Please tell everyone you know! Solidarity, forever! www.unitedigitaltech.org/2026/09/lega...
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Intriguing option on Ghent University's expenses system. And one that most people working in higher education could make a lot of use of, I think.
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Refugee fleeing war, persecution, torture, attempting to pilot a boat to safety = "endangering the life of another at sea" under Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025, but racist stabbing dinghy with person aboard = legitimate concerns?
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Refugee fleeing war, persecution, torture, attempting to pilot a boat to safety = "endangering the life of another at sea" under Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025, but racist stabbing dinghy with person aboard = legitimate concerns?
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Jana Bacevic 🌲🌳✊🏴 @unsocialtheory.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"anti-migrant" is a euphemism. migrants are not vaccines, mosquitoes, wars, or racism (all nouns for which the prefix anti- is commonly used to denote opposition to, or action designed to kill/harm/obstruct). migrants are human beings. "anti-migrant protesters" are "pro-crimes-against-humanity".
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Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
There are so many crimes in this thread you have to wonder what the police and Home Secretary think they are doing at this point.
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Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
6. As far as we can see, the rescuer was okay - though this is bordering on attempted murder. RNLI then headed towards the Solent, AIS off and chased by the far-right. Authorities in Portsmouth likely were warned that people would be offloaded and processed at Gosport, so Thomas rallied activists.
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Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
5. After around 30 hours at sea, the dinghy was intercepted by the RNLI and those on board transferred to two lifeboats. Two lifeboat personnel tried to secure the empty dinghy. Thomas yelled abuse and knifed the dinghy to deflate it - with a rescuer still on board.
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
This is the direct result of narratives and policies deliberately propagated by successive governments - including the current one - and their media mates, because they consider murderous racist violence preferable to acknowledging and reversing the economic, social, and climate crises they created.
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Samantha Asumadu @samanthaasumadu.substack.com · 22/09/2026
'New analysis on UK media: British media is not delivering the news to its readers. They are delivering an agenda. The seven days after Channel 4 filmed James Orr are a damning indictment of the British press. Orr is a Cambridge associate professor.' via @newscord.org
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
lol this lad was naming me and my colleagues in his "traitorbase" posts just the other day, then HNH named him and he immediately deleted his account
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Anti-Fascism and Far Right @ffrafaction.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Looks like he’s not so big time after all. Minutes after HNH published their expose, he deleted his X account
Tweet on X by Hope Not Hate saying that Big Time Charlie deleted his X account
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Anti-Fascism and Far Right @ffrafaction.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
“Big Time Charlie”, the man behind a recent campaign of online harassment against progressive charities, campaigners & others he considers “traitors” has been exposed as Tom Watson, a Worcester man who is also a Restore Britain activist - by @hopenothate.org.uk hopenothate.org.uk/2026/09/22/m...
hopenothate.org.uk
Meet Big Time Charlie: The Restore Britain activist harassing the progressive sector – HOPE not hate
HOPE not hate exposes “Big Time Charlie”, the man behind a recent campaign of online harassment against progressive charities, campaigners and others he considers “traitors”....
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Robin Ince @robinince.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I think of Sophie and how the men who killed her would be seen as the sort of people Kier Starmer and similar Labour types would now defend as having “legitimate concerns” and Farage would see as the backbone of England
A 20-year-old goth, Sophie Lancaster and her boyfriend were walking in a park in Васир (2007) when a gang attacked them.
One attacker later said they kicked her head like a football. This case became one of Britain's most horrifying hate crime stories.
U
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Max Granger @maxgranger.info · 18/09/2026
Honduran riot cops are evicting an afro-indigenous Garifuna community so that a foreign billionaire can use their ancestral islands to film the reality TV show "Survivor."
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
How is this anything but refoulement and an egregious breach of the Refugee Convention?! I guess it is, but also just another in the litany of crimes committed by the Trump administration, including genocide...
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
There are few things more enraging about British politics in the twenty-first century than the extent to which Westminster and the national news media are in thrall to bloated leeches like this. They are invariably tax evading, climate change denying, racist ghouls. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Billionaire Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe says he has lost confidence in UK
Ineos founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe tells the BBC he thinks the country is "on the slide" and calls for more investment in the North Sea.
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
So now I guess it's down to BAE, Meta, or TBI for Keir. Would be awkward to have two professional genocide apologist / reputation launderer roles at the same company.
Guardian headline: Former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson joins Palantir.
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Because criminalising "outright" racism while advancing implicit and systemic racisms has worked out great for the UK so far!
Guardian headline: 'Outright racist’ Daniel Thomas will face full force of law over any crimes, says home secretary.
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 17/09/2026
Lifeboat station in Portsmouth forced to temporarily shut after far-right action
theguardian.com
Lifeboat station in Portsmouth forced to temporarily shut after far-right action
RNLI facility had been affected by attempts by activists to stop asylum seekers landing in boats from the Channel A lifeboat station on the south coast of England near the spot where far-right activists tried to stop asylum seekers landing has been forced to temporarily close, it has emerged. The station in Portsmouth shut after it and other sites run by the RNLI were targeted by people objecting to the lifeboat charity going to the aid of people trying to get to the UK on small boats. Continue reading...
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
"middle class brats who live in suburbia"? um... this is "Tommy's" actual house, circa 2019
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Refugee Action @refugeeaction.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The government is wrong to house people seeking asylum in former military sites. But the answer isn’t to demonise people seeking safety. It’s to create more decent housing for all. Listen to our Policy Manager Ben Whitham talk about this on LBC from 16:25:07: www.globalplayer.com/live/lbcnews...
globalplayer.com
LBC News - Listen Live | Global Player
Where The News Never Stops. Access your favourite LBC News shows now!
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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
While Piddington dominates the news, at Leicester Crown Court this man was sentenced today Ivan Jennings, a former Conservative councillor, called for terror attacks on small boat migrants and Muslims and shared target ideas, telling fellow white supremacists to kill as many “subhumans” as possible
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
How many times in the struggles for human freedom have rich, white celebrities, when asked to stand up, responded "although I have to decline that request because of structural pressures outside of my control, I sleep soundly knowing I still have a good, pure soul, and all my real friends know this"
Guardian screenshot featuring quote from Ed Sheeran: “I have spent this week trying to build bridges, to find a solution and unfortunately, was unable to do so,” Sheeran concluded his post. “I know who I am, both as a person and as an artist, and those who know my heart know my values too.”
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
How many times in the struggles for human freedom have rich, white celebrities, when asked to stand up, responded "although I have to decline that request because of structural pressures outside of my control, I sleep soundly knowing I still have a good, pure soul, and all my real friends know this"
Guardian screenshot featuring quote from Ed Sheeran: “I have spent this week trying to build bridges, to find a solution and unfortunately, was unable to do so,” Sheeran concluded his post. “I know who I am, both as a person and as an artist, and those who know my heart know my values too.”
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IWGB Game Workers Union @gameworkers.co.uk · 10/09/2026
Today marks the beginning of our trial against Rockstar to hold them accountable for firing workers who were trying to unionise. In order for us to see this through to the end, we need your support. Please donate to and share our fundraiser for the Rockstar 31: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/qr/wWq5Omj...
crowdfunder.co.uk
Defend union rights: Support the Rockstar 31
Justice for 31 Rockstar employees who formed a union and were fired en masse
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elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
As a brown migrant living in the UK legally, this is precisely why there can be *no* compromise on the fundamental right of seeking asylum. Pretty quickly it’s anyone who ‘looks’ like an asylum seeker - ie brown or black - who is targeted. No one is safe from this.
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
That the government's response to a large-scale fascist mobilisation is to say stuff like "the right to protest is fundamental" and "we already *are* stopping the boats" is in itself the story of how we got here.
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
That the government's response to a large-scale fascist mobilisation is to say stuff like "the right to protest is fundamental" and "we already *are* stopping the boats" is in itself the story of how we got here.
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Channel 4 News @channel4news.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Undercover footage verified by Channel 4 News reveals a secret plot by senior Reform UK figures to break the law on party donations. A leading legal expert is now calling for a criminal investigation. 🔗 Read the exclusive story on Substack:
channel4news.substack.com
Exclusive: Nigel Farage filmed undercover celebrating secret new foreign donations
Undercover footage verified by Channel 4 News reveals a secret plot by senior Reform UK figures to break the law on party donations. A leading legal expert is now calling for a criminal investigation.
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Mallory Moore @sexabolition.blog · 02/09/2026
Told you
I am a persecuted human rights icon

MILO YIANNOPOULOS

SPECTATOR
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Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
No: it isn’t “genuinely bad news for the far right” that the framing & salience of its pet subject has been adopted by the entire political-media system. That assumption mistakes the far right‘s demands as genuine & limited, & thus manageable, rather than being a proxy or wedge issue for much worse.
Post from “Otto English” QPing one from Sunder Katwala: Sunder posts ‘“Small boat arrivals fall to six year low" - Telegraph. June, July, August were lowest for six years’ and screenshots a headline from the Telegraph; Otto comments in the QP: ‘Genuinely bad news for the far right’
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
The fact this lot get to "preview" it a week *after* billionaire techno-fascist Peter Thiel is just a great summary of how power works now.
BBC News headline: King Charles, Macron and Burnham to preview Bayeux Tapestry display
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Simon Pirani @simonpirani.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Heat networks are a v. good idea & can help tackle climate change. But there's huge potential for completely mucking them up, now being realised by councils &, possibly, gov't. theecologist.org/2026/sep/02/... in @theecologist.org & thanks @fuelpovertyaction.bsky.social @heattrust.bsky.social
theecologist.org
Heat networks judicial review challenge
Heat networks should reduce costs and climate impacts. But private interests and lack of regulation has resulted in exorbitant bills and poor service.
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
"I will now focus on other things and that will be international affairs including defence, security, trade and technology in a fast-changing world". And will that be for Palantir, Meta, BAE Systems, or the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change?
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IWGB @iwgbunion.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Don’t boycott GTA VI. Fight for justice for the people who made it: youtube.com/shorts/hhIES... T-shirt preorders open now! All proceeds from the t-shirts, which are ethically made and designed by us, will go towards the fired Rockstar workers’ legal funds. bit.ly/4xLc4IP
youtube.com
Don't Boycott GTA VI. Fight for justice for the people who made it.
YouTube video by IWGB Union
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Thomas Lecaque @tlecaque.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
My genuinely non controversial take is that if you're signing an open letter of support for Cofnas you're either a racist or want to be admired in racist spaces.
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Jana Bacevic 🌲🌳✊🏴 @unsocialtheory.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Btw, the Reform soundbite is not even the worst bit of this. The bigger problem is that Labour spokesperson, instead of saying the obvious - which is that distinguishing between categories of citizens is blatant discrimination - focuses on their 'worth', by saying it would impact e.g. NHS staff (!!)
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 17/08/2026
rare books are destroyed in the process but at least we have a technology that instructs teens how to commit suicide
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
ULEZ measurably improves children's lung capacity. Naturally, Reform has promised to abolish it entirely, along with climate change mitigations (and one of their fellow travellers launched an IED attack on a ULEZ camera that sent shrapnel into a child's bedroom window). www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone
Children's lung capacity caught up with their peers in less polluted areas once a clean air zone came in, a study shows.
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Yet another reason not to hand billions to profiteering corporations to run asylum accommodation: "An employee of a company that provides accommodation for asylum seekers has been charged with misconduct in public office". Directly aiding fascist pogroms 🤯 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Man charged with sharing asylum seeker addresses in Thetford
The 62-year-old man is remanded in custody and will appear at Norwich Crown Court on 14 September.
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Last night's vigil for Jason Arday in London, and a section from Callahan and Paradise's new book "Community Safety in the Fourth World War", on the power of the vigil as a step in the fight for justice after state violence.
Image of a crowd of thousands assembled in Trafalgar Square, London, to stand vigil for Professor Jason Arday.Image of a page in a book. Highlighted passages read: "Read alongside other forms of disruption like the blockade or strike, the fierce care that calls the situated vigil into being becomes a praxis, one that produces knowledge and coheres a community through that shared knowledge, and through the process of sharing knowledge it constructs both resistance and meaning... Fierce care activates the space of vigil as a space of knowledge production, but also as a call to action, a space to pursue justice".
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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Impressive chutzpah from JWS here: 4000 words on the spread of the "Great Replacement" theory in the UK without a single mention of his columnist/friend Douglas Murray, who wrote a whole book endorsing it...
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
"The party has taken tens of millions of pounds in donations from people with connections to the fossil fuel industry ... notably from the billionaire Christopher Harborne ... whose £5m gift to Nigel Farage is now at the centre of a parliamentary inquiry." www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Reform’s Tice says people should stop fighting climate crisis and ‘enjoy’ heat
Deputy leader says it is ‘arrogant’ to try to halt global heating, despite UK being left reeling by summer firewave
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Luke Turner @luketurner.com · 17/08/2026
Periodic reminder that Kathleen Stock unapologetically crowdfunded for neo-Nazi bullies in their calamitous libel case against me.
Tweet by Kathleen Stock sharing a far-right crowdfunder by Daniel 'DC' Miller and Nina Power entitled 'Targeted, harassed and falsely labelled a fascist'.

Reply by Mallory Moore: "Seriously, why are you supporting a *not even very well veiled* fascist here? This feels reminiscent of the way you've supported the work of homophobes and not once let your following know maybe that was a mistake. Why do you keep doing this?"

Reply by Kathleen Stock: "Stop believing all you read online about people. And stop casually debasing the word "fascist" for role playing purposes - one day you might be unlucky enough to meet a real one."Tweet by Kathleen Stock: "Nina [Power] is an original, stimulating, light-footed writer who always makes me think; I'm very happy I supported her crowdfunder a few years back; and I get a lot from @compactmag_ where she is editor, and the podcast she contributes to. Keep doing what you do Nina, you are great."

Reply by Will: "Apart from the Neo-Nazi shit, sure". Embedded tweet by Luke Turner including antisemitic imagery: "During cross-examination, Nina Power & Daniel Miller both admitted they had written anonymously for the Parallax Optics site--a fact they had previously denied--with their *own pleadings* having characterised the account as "espousing and disseminating abhorrent antisemitic views."

Reply by Kathleen Stock: "Whatever the deeper truth here, I absolutely would not take Turner's word for it. And I would say more, but the last time I mentioned his name on Twitter, fairly benignly, I got threatened with legal action."

Reply by Will: "*Deeply* embarrassing tweet when you can literally read the judgment". Embedded tweet by Luke Turner: "A full copy of the High Court's Judgment, which I invite you to read, is available here: https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Miller-and-Power-v-Turner-08.11.23.pdf "

Reply by Will: "Still, it's only antisemitism"

Reply by Kathleen Stock: "Sorry Will, I'm not doing trial by twitter. You do it if you want. I've had enough of that shit to last a life time. Feel free to infer all the dastardly conclusions."
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Ben Whitham @drbenwhitham.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
As Searchlight points out, "the Epping disorder was repeatedly presented as a spontaneous eruption of local anger", yet its ringleaders were known ultra-violent neo-nazis and veteran members of murderous white supremacist organisations. searchlightmagazine.com/2026/08/vete...
searchlightmagazine.com
Veteran nazi thug Phil Curson jailed over Epping riot | Searchlight
Phil Curson, a long-standing figure on the British far right, has been jailed for 27 months after being convicted of violent disorder during anti-migrant pr ...
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